"We real cool"
Response on We Real Cool
We Real Cool¡ is a poem written by Gwendolyn Brooks in 1959. This poem is about some dropout students who were playing in a pool house when they should be in school. The poet demonstrates contradiction in the poem. This poem certainly appeals to certain group of people in the society.
In Brooks’ poem We Real Cool, she expresses contradiction. On one hand, she wrote about their tragic lives; and on the other, their freedom is expressed in her poem. The bad grammar shown in the poem demonstrates the contradiction completely. It shows to the readers that they were poor educated and in lower status in the society. They were not respected from others. The line “we sing sin” (poets.org) also revealed that they were giving up on how others looked at them. They even praised sin. This leads to the idea that they had freedom, which others did not have. They could do whatever they wanted and not worried how others might think. They had pride in their doings. In addition, the ¡§We¡ in the end of every sentence is emphasized when we are reading the poem. The We can carry out the pride in the dropout students when it is emphasized. The two words that follow the We are used to express what they are doing and the consequence DIE.
This poem sure describes the life style of the dropout students well. As a reader, the feelings towards the dropout students are passed on from the poet to us.